Star Ship Polaris

[Vektor]

In case anyone is wondering, the gap above the console the middle crewman is working at is going to be filled with a flat-screen display, and there will be another on the back side of it facing toward the center of the engine room, which you'll be able to see on the far side just over his left shoulder. The display graphics from the previous concepts will be reused here, including the round monitors. I think we've captured the gritty mechanical ambiance, now it's time to tech it up a bit.

 

[Maurice]

Can you sketch over the console a bit? I'd like to see what you'd do if it were a blank slate.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Seconded.

 

[Vektor]

Okay, I'll see what I can do.

 

[Venardhi]

You might find this helpful in your texturing efforts: http://quixel.se/ddo/

 

[USS Mariner]

All this just makes me even more irritated that my new Wacom Bamboo Pen still doesn't play nice with my laptop. Grrr.

As for Vek's work, HNNNNNNNG.

BTW Maurice & Dennis, I'm still available for any VO work or bits you might need. I figured you have all the principal stuff done by now, but I'm still willing to lend a hand, erm, song.

 

[Maurice]

We have a lot of background chatter on the command deck coming through intercoms and stuff. We've already got Erik Braa (demo reel here) doing a lot of voice work, but he won't cover all of it, so I'll keep you in mind.

 

[Vektor]

More progress. I've omitted the foreground consoles for the moment because I'm in the process of redesigning them and I wanted to showcase the stuff in the background anyway.

This is getting pretty close to where I want it. Still have a fair amount of polishing to do and a number of details left to add, but I'm happy with the overall look.

Funny how this stuff works. Earlier this afternoon I was fussing with this thing, trying to balance the values and just make it look halfway decent, and I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere. I was getting downright discouraged in fact. Then somewhere along the line it just sort of came together, more or less. I think adding the floor texture really helped, made it seem more like a complete space.

Anyway, more to come before the weekend is out.

 

[Maurice]

Now that's the stuff!

We can imagine there's a big-old space boiler/reactor/whatever in the middle there, buried behind the consoles and other equipment. It feels like an engine room instead of a lava lamp.

I kinda want there to be a few ladders in there to let the engineers climb up and bang on the pipes and junk above.

re the consoles: When putting the buttons on the consoles I came up with certain rules to make them feel real and not a jumble of colored lights. As in the image below, we tended to make banks, rows and columns out of a single color. Sometimes we'd have two or three of one color with a single different color on the end, as if the identically colored ones are mode selectors and the differently colored end one is an activator switch (I've designed my fair share of user interfaces for games, so I have a good sense for what appears to be practical and designed).

Each station had three sections. The leftmost one, with the silvery boxes with the flip-up covers, were intended to be intercoms, with controls for the various monitors just below the silver boxes.

CLICK TO EMBIGGEN!

​

 

[Vektor]

The console buttons in the illustration above are actually lifted right from the set photos you guys have posted on Facebook, though I did partly rearrange them back when I was planning for this console to be manned by a single technician rather than two.

They're only temporary at the moment, though I will probably take advantage of that nice big image you just posted to steal some better quality versions for the final.

 

[largo]

"It looks a hell of a lot better than that dingy Vogon ship. This is my idea of a spaceship! All gleaming white, flashing lights, everything. What happens if I press this button?"

 

[sojourner]

Very sweet! I love the "gemini capsule" shaped pipes.
Star Trek nerd question : This room is starting to look pretty big, will it fit into the deckplans?

It occurs to me that the way you have the ship laid out, aren't the "travel tube/s" close to the center line and shouldn't they be somewhere near the center of this room?

 

[Vektor]

Star Trek nerd question : This room is starting to look pretty big, will it fit into the deckplans?

The main fuselage is about 50 feet across at the location I had in mind for this space. Technically, I might have exceeded that in this illustration but I don't think by much.

It occurs to me that the way you have the ship laid out, aren't the "travel tube/s" close to the center line and shouldn't they be somewhere near the center of this room?

I am deviating from the original "travel tube" concept. Given that it's been decided this ship is capable of landing on a planet's surface, I didn't think it would be wise to depend on null-gravity tubes several decks high for getting around the ship. Ladder wells would be better, but still rather dangerous. Lift tubes would be better yet, but would require a lot of space and you'd really need at least two separate shafts.

I decided to move these shafts out of the main fuselage and into the disc section on either side of it. I'm figuring a total of four, two ventral and two dorsal, with a gap between them to allow access to the cargo bays and other areas outside the fuselage. Two of the shafts have lifts and the other two are compact gangways or staggered ladder wells.

So no, no travel tubes passing through the middle of Main Control. However, depending on the cropping of these shots, the access to one of them might be visible way off to the right.

 

[Vektor]

I kinda want there to be a few ladders in there to let the engineers climb up and bang on the pipes and junk above.

I actually had an idea about that. Port and starboard access to the upper level:

 

[sojourner]

So, in the spirit of "Jefferies Tube", might I suggest Vektor Conduits?

 

[Maurice]

Re travel tubes, shafts, etc. I for one wouldn't mind seeing such a thing passing through part of the room. I've toured enough Navy ships to know that you jam the equipment in wherever it fits.

re the ladder. You put them exactly where I imagined them!

I'll work with Dennis to see what we can do about getting some greenscreen footage of engineers to put farther back in the space. I have my own simple greenscreen here so if I had a costume or two I could shoot this stuff myself. Hey, Dennis, ship me back the mesh engineering jumpsuit and a Suarez suit!

 

[Maurice]

So, in the spirit of "Jefferies Tube", might I suggest Vektor Conduits?

Vektor Vents

 

[USS Intrepid]

Vektor that's brilliant. Love it!

 

[Vektor]

So, in the spirit of "Jefferies Tube", might I suggest Vektor Conduits?

Vektor Vents

Uh... no.

 

[Maurice]

So, in the spirit of "Jefferies Tube", might I suggest Vektor Conduits?

Vektor Vents

Uh... no.

Valves? Viaducts? Kidding.